BRAND STRATEGIST

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Women 2.0

Women 2.0 Conference Reception @ Westin St. Francisco

Feb 14th 6:00-8:00pm

I got myself a badge and crashed this Women 2.0 conference reception because for this Valentines Day I was going to surround myself with females. Exploring "The Next Billion: Consumers, Markets & Product" was the must attend conference for investors, engineers and designers focused on exploring
up-and-coming trends in innovation. "The Next Billion" is the future that we see today with successful women entrepreneurs who've reached milestones of billions with some of the leading female executives in technology.

Amongst these female leaders were Selina Tobaccowala (Founder of Evite.com) and Jessica Scorpio (Co-Founder of Getaround), but still women start only 3% of tech firms. I crashed this conference to discuss innovation and learn from their start-up advice:

"Choose your partners wisely, in business and in life."

"People are everything; not just who share a vision but who execute it."

"Content is queen."

It only seemed appropriate on this V-Day to track down the woman whose partially responsible for bringing hundreds of couples together. Fran Maier co-founded one of the first and most successful online dating sites, Match.com. Back when most people thought the whole concept of internet dating was weird, Fran helped grow Match by changing the perceptions and building one of the most recognized online brands. Fran stepped away from the project in 1998 when it was sold by a board of directors who didn't believe in the potential of online dating. It was purchased for a few million dollars (pennies compared to its current $178 million revenues). Fran shared advice to VCs now around women advancements, "If she has traction, if she has customers, if she has sales -maybe you don't get it, but write the check anyway."

Thanks to these and the many other women nerd superheroes. You’ve truly helped make the world a better place... CRASHED IT!